AMD Ryzen Mobile systems could ship with Qualcomm modems inside

Qualcomm's Snapdragon platforms won't be the only processors powering Microsoft's vision for always-connected PCs. At the Snapdragon Technology Summit, AMD's Kevin Lensing, corporate vice president and manager of the company's client products, got on stage to announce that the red team has been working to integrate Qualcomm's cellular modems with its Ryzen Mobile reference platforms from the get-go.

That close integration raises the prospect of high-performance Ryzen Mobile systems with always-on cellular connectivity, though Lensing didn't announce any design wins to that effect during the keynote. Perhaps we'll hear more about systems pairing Ryzen Mobile SoCs with Qualcomm modems at CES. Still, this partnership could prove important armor for AMD against Intel, as the blue team will almost certainly pair up its own cellular modems with its mobile CPUs at some point to get in on the always-connected bandwagon. Stay tuned.